Mark Zuckerberg’s Comments on Smart Glasses and Climate Change Are Not Based in Reality

Well, perhaps virtual reality. But that’s about it.

Drew Costley
OneZero

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Photo: Amy Osborne/AFP/Getty Images

In an interview with The Information on Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that augmented- and virtual-reality glasses would help mitigate climate change by allowing people to virtually “teleport” places rather than physically travel.

“It’s going to have a big society-wide impact on a lot of things we care deeply about like climate change, because look… obviously there are going to keep on being cars and planes and all that,” he said. “But the more that we can ‘teleport’ around, not only are we personally eliminating commutes and stuff like that that’s kind of a drag for us individually, but I think it’s better for society and the planet, too.”

The thinking here is that the more people are able to have realistic experiences through AR and VR, the less they’ll consume fossil fuels by driving or flying places.

While a lot of us were on the road and in the air a lot less in 2020, there were still ample emissions from factories, farms, diesel trucks, and cargo planes.

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Drew Costley
OneZero

Drew Costley is a Staff Writer at FutureHuman covering the environment, health, science and tech. Previously @ SFGate, East Bay Express, USA Today, etc.